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"  The latest episode of Lost, &amp;quot;The Other Woman,&amp;quot; talked not of time travel and sat phones, but instead returned to one of the show&amp;#039;s original mysteries: What is it about the island that messes with women&amp;#039;s reproductive systems, putting their lives at such a constant risk? Back in Season 3, we learned that Claire was the first mother on the island; until her son Aaron&amp;#039;s birth, all pregnant women there died during their third trimester (in total, pregnancy has killed nine women). And that&amp;#039;s why blonde super doc Juliet came in the first place: to make childbirth possible. And she takes her mission personally, as we saw Thursday when the death of a pregnant patient had her crumpled to the floor in tears. Speaking to Ben later, she says that during the second trimester &amp;quot;white blood cells plummet, and the immune system turns on the fetus.&amp;quot; In reality, this is the exact opposite of what happens to a pregnant woman. During pregnancy, the white blood cell count is slightly elevated\u2014half of the fetus is Mom, half is Dad, the body sees unfamiliar DNA and raises its guard. &amp;quot;Normally, the mom&amp;#039;s immune system is kept in check, and that&amp;#039;s why the baby is accepted,&amp;quot; says Dr. Michael Cackovic, an instructor in the department of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Yale University. &amp;quot;And generally, pregnant women are healthy,&amp;quot; meaning their immune systems work just fine. But Cackovic, a Lost fan in his own right, has one big biological qualm with the show&amp;#039;s key plot arc: &amp;quot;If the immune system is turning on the fetus, that would mean a stillbirth\u2014not that Mom would die.&amp;quot; Why getting pregnant on the island is a death sentence, he can&amp;#039;t say. It could have something to do with the weakened immune system, though. Whenever anybody has a low white blood cell count, in theory, they&amp;#039;re at risk for infection. So if a mother&amp;#039;s immunoresponse dropped quickly, she would become more susceptible to any kind of external invasion. And what can cause a reduced white blood cell count? You guessed it: electromagnetic radiation. &amp;quot;Radiation kills any cells that are rapidly turning over, that are rapidly growing.,&amp;quot; Cackovic says. &amp;quot;So, yes, the low white blood cell count can definitely have to do with the island&amp;#039;s electromagnetic radiation.&amp;quot; And it&amp;#039;s logical to say that it can also be why Rose&amp;#039;s cancer went into remission\u2014and why no one on the island has ever had cancer (as Ben explained to Juliet back in Season 3). But, as Ben so michievously reminded us on Thursday, the island has spurred other miracles (&amp;quot;One minute you&amp;#039;re in a wheelchair, the next minute you&amp;#039;re doing jumping jacks&amp;quot;), and we&amp;#039;re not exactly sure what electromagnetism had to do with them all. Now we&amp;#039;ll just have to wait and see how Sun and her baby fare, and this week&amp;#039;s episode should be a start. Stay tuned. \u2014Erin Scottberg   RELATED STORIES \u2022 DIGITAL HOLLYWOOD: Follow PM&amp;#039;s Lost Watch Every Week  \u2022 FROM UGO.COM: Lost Episode Recaps and Previews   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/tv/a2691/4253942/>